Chemistry of Life

The Chemistry of Life is a hands-on, investigative chemistry course for elementary and middle school teachers in the San Francisco Unified School District that integrates adult level content learning with classroom appropriate pedagogy.

Author(s): SEP staff

This activity is based on a lesson from the Living by Chemistry curriculum developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science (see citation).

During this activity students explore in depth their own understanding of what constitutes "matter" and work together as a group to create a definition for matter.

Students work in pairs to debate how to sort "items" printed on cards into three categories: "matter", "non-matter" and "unsure" and then try to determine what properties all items in each category have in common. A whole class discussion about "tricky" items follows during which students ultimately agree on a definition of matter.

You can choose which cards you would like to use depending on your students' age, abilities, and experiences. As an example, for elementary grades, you might choose not to use the entire set.

Author(s): SEP staff

Funded in part by by the National Center for Research Resources and the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) of the National Institutes of Health through Grant Number R25 OD011097 and by an undergraduate science education award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute